National Wilderness Preservation System database: key attributes and trends, 1964 through 1999

104 Pages·2008·5.13 MB·English

This file was created by scanning the printed publication.
Errors identified by the software have been corrected;
however, some errors may remain.
United States National Wilderness
Department
of Agriculture
Preservation System Database:
Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Key Attributes and Trends,
Research Station
General Technical 1964 Through 1999
Report RMRS-GTR-18
Revised Edition
July 2000
Peter Landres
Shannon Meyer
Abstract
Landres, Peter; Meyer, Shannon. 2000. National Wilderness Preservation System database: key attributes
and trends, 1964 through 1999. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-18. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Rocky Mountain Research Station. 98 p.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 established a National Wilderness Preservation System, and this publication is a
compilation of selected information about every wilderness within this System. For each wilderness, the following
information is given: legally correct wilderness name; public law that established the wilderness; date the enabling
law was signed by the President; acreage designated in the enabling public law; modifying public law or laws that
affected the name, boundary, or administration; current total acreage reported by the administering agency, the
agency or agencies with current administrative authority; administering unit or units within the agency; State or
States in which the wilderness is located. This information is arranged in nine different tables, each arranged and
sorted in different ways to allow the reader to easily find desired information. In addition to this publication, this
information is also available on the World Wide Web site http://www.wilderness.net/nwps in a relational database
that can be queried. Sources for all information included here are described, and exceptions and special cases are
discussed. All the information included in this database has been verified by wilderness specialists within each of
the four agencies with responsibility for managing wilderness. Based on the data in this publication, various trends
in wilderness from 1964 through 1999 are described, including the total number of wildernesses, acres of
wilderness, agency administration, size of individual wildernesses, and State distribution. An appendix of all public
laws establishing or modifying wilderness is included. For each public law, the following information is also given:
the States affected by that law, the management agencies designated by that law, the number of wilderness study
areas designated (if any), and whether special provisions were included in that law.
Keywords: wilderness public law, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service,
National Park Service, National Wildlife Refuge, National Monument, National Seashore, National
Recreation Area, National Park and Preserve, Wilderness Act
The Authors Acknowledgments
Peter Landres is Research Ecologist at the Rocky Many people generously gave their time and effort to
Mountain Research Station’s Aldo Leopold Wilderness provide information or review portions of this database,
Research Institute in Missoula, Montana. Dr. Landres including Greg Aplet, Virginia Beres, Paul Brink, David
holds a Ph.D. degree in Ecology and Biology from Utah Cole, Wayne Freimund, Chris Ryan, David Spildie, Ralph
State University, and a B.S. degree in Natural Science Swain and all the individuals listed in Appendix B. We are
from Lewis and Clark College. He is active in developing especially grateful for the support of the various agencies
the knowledge to improve the ecological management of from Liz Close, Lenny Eubanks, Jeff Jarvis, Rob Hellie,
wilderness. Sue Matthews, Connie Myers, Jerry Stokes, and Jim
Walters. The Director of the Leopold Institute, David
Shannon Meyer is a Policy Analyst at the Rocky Moun-
Parsons, consistently and graciously supported this ef-
tain Research Station’s Aldo Leopold Wilderness Re-
fort. Keith Corrigall and Hal Halett started all this with their
search Institute in Missoula, Montana. Ms. Meyer holds
vision and persistence. We also thank Ed Kleiman, Jay
an M.S. degree in Environmental Policy from the Univer-
Kolbe, and Mary Gage Stringfellow for their initial work on
sity of Montana, and a B.A. degree in Environmental
this Database. Keith Vanderwielen researched and gra-
studies and Government from Bowdoin College. She is
ciously supplied updates to the shifting Forest and Ranger
active in developing policy frameworks for improving the
District designation of many Forest Service wildernesses.
management of wilderness.
We are especially grateful to Markie Hunsiker and the
National Geographic Society for the cover map of the
National Wilderness Preservation System.
Rocky Mountain Research Station
324 25th Street
Ogden, UT 84401
Contents
Page
Introduction .........................................................................................................................1
Content and Organization of the Database .........................................................................2
Sources of Information ......................................................................................................... 2
Exceptions and Special Cases ........................................................................................4
Number of Wildernesses in the National Wilderness Preservation System .........................6
Trends in Wilderness: 1964 through 1999 ...........................................................................6
Total Number and Acres ................................................................................................... 6
Agency Administration ....................................................................................................8..
Size of Individual Wildernesses .....................................................................................9..
State Distribution ..............................................................................................................9
References ........................................................................................................................1.1
Appendix A: Public Laws .................................................................................................... 12
Appendix B: Personal Communications ............................................................................. 16
Wilderness Database Tables ............................................................................................. 17
Wilderness Summary ...................................................................................................... 18
Current Bureau of Land Management Acreages ............................................................3 1
Current Fish and Wildlife Service Acreages ..................................................................3. 4
Current Forest Service Acreages ...................................................................................3 6
Current National Park Service Acreages ........................................................................4 6
Current State Acreages .................................................................................................4. 7
Public Laws and Acreages ............................................................................................6. 5
Administrative Units of the Bureau of Land Management ..............................................8 2
Administrative Units of the Forest Service ..................................................................... 86
Note to users: This revised publication incorporates the 1999 legislative
.
changes to the National Wilderness Preservation System The text.
figures. tables. and the Appendix on public laws have all been revised to
.
accommodate these changes As in any publication with thousands of
.
tiny bits of information. some errors were found in the previous edition
All the errors that have been brought to the authors' attention have been
.
corrected
You may order additional copies of this publication by sending your mailing
information in label form through one of the following media . Please specify the
publication title and General Technical Report number .
Fort Collins Service Center
Telephone [phone]
FAX [phone]
E-mail rschneiderC2fs.fed.u~
Web site http://www.fs.fed.us/rm
Mailing Address Publications Distribution
Rocky Mountain Research Station
240 West Prospect Road
Fort Collins. CO 80526

National Wilderness Preservation
System Database: Key Attributes
and Trends, 1964 Through 1999
Peter Landres
Shannon Meyer
Introduction This publication is also available at the World Wide
Web site http:llwww.wilderness.net/nwps. All NWPS
The Wilderness Act of 1964 established a National data at this internet site are in a relational database
Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) "to secure that allows querying, sorting, and generating reports
for the American people of present and future genera- that can be downloaded into the user's computer
tions the benefits of an enduring resource of wilder- system. On-line instructions guide users through this
ness." The 1964 Act established 9.1 million acres of relational database.
Forest Service land in 54 wildernesses. Now, after 104 Our intent is that this Database be useful for those
pieces of legislation (see Appendix A), the NWPS is in need of accurate wilderness information. Such in-
composed of over 104 million acres in 628 wilder- formation can be used for a variety of purposes. For
nesses, across 44 States, and administered by four example, managers, researchers, or advocates can
Federal agencies: the USDA Forest Service (FS), and develop an in-depth understanding about the NWPS
the USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish or about a specific wilderness or group ofwildernesses.
and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the National Park We illustrate some of these uses below in an analysis
Service (NPS). of historical trends in wilderness designation, as well
There are three primary reasons why an NWPS as analyses of current patterns in geographic and
Database is needed. First, previous published compi- agency representation, size-class distribution, and
lations ofNWPS information (Reed 1987,1988;B rown- State distribution. When combined with information
ing and others 1988; Rosenberg 1994) are out of date. that is not part of this Database, such as data on
Second, with four independent agencies and nearly recreation use, demographic and socio-economic data,
constant legislative and administrative changes to the or ecological information, relationships between wil-
wilderness system, there is a lack of consistency and derness and these other attributes may be analyzed.
accuracy in reporting and maintaining information In addition, this NWPS Database provides a sound
about the NWPS. And third, with expanding socio- baseline to which information about changes to exist-
economic pressures to develop currently undeveloped ing wildernesses or the designation of new wilder-
Federal lands, there is increasing interest and need nesses may be added, and from which trends and
from both public and private sectors for a single source patterns can be analyzed in the future.
of reliable information on the key attributes of wilder- This summary is organized by first describing the
nesses nationwide. content and structure of the nine component spread-
The purpose of this NWPS Database is to provide a sheets. The sources used in compiling this informa-
single source for consistent, accurate, and current as tion are then described. We show where inconsisten-
well as historical information about the wildernesses cies exist between legislative and agency sources, and
in the NWPS in an accessible and easy-to-use format, in these situations we explain our choices of which
Every effort has been made to make this NWPS data were used, as well as exceptions to these choices
Database as accurate as possible, relying on verifiable and special cases. We next describe the number of
information sources that have been validated and wildernesses that are within the NWPS, and discuss
cross-checked. The purpose of this publication is to differences between this information and other wil-
describe the construction of this Database, to provide derness compilations. Finally, we demonstrate how
this information in printed form, and to summarize these data can be used by analyzing some major
general trends in the administration and distribution trends in wilderness designation and distribution
of wilderness over the 35 year history of the NWPS. across the NWPS.
USDA Forest Service Gen Tech Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-Revised Edition. 2000
Content and Organization of the Current State Acreages
Database - composed of wilderness name, agency, admin-
istrative unit, current acreage within each
This NWPS Database includes the following infor- administrative unit, and total State acreage
mation for every wilderness: - sorted by State, then alphabetically by wilder-
ness name, agency, and administrative unit
Legally correct name cited in the enabling public
Public Laws and Acreages
law
- composed of wilderness name, agency, State,
Public law that established the wilderness
establishing and modifying public laws, date
Date the enabling law was signed by the
established, and acreage designated by the
President
public law
Acreage designated in the enabling public law
- sorted by agency, then State, alphabetically
Modifying public law or laws that affect the name,
by wilderness name, and chronologically by
boundary, or administration
date established
Current total acreage reported by the administer-
Administrative Units of the BLM
ing agency
- composed of wilderness name, State, and the
Agency or agencies with administrative authority
administrative hierarchy to its lowest appli-
Administering units within each agency
cable level
State or States in which the wilderness is located
- sorted alphabetically by State, wilderness
Different users have different needs for how this name and administrative unit
information is organized, and we present this informa- Administrative Units of the FS
tion in a variety of different formats to facilitate access - composed of wilderness name, State, region,
to the desired data. Each bulleted entry below identi- and the administrative hierarchy to its lowest
fies a distinct spreadsheet, showing the name of the level responsible for that wilderness
spreadsheet, its contents, and how the spreadsheet - sorted alphabetically by region, State, wilder-
was sorted. ness name, and administrative unit
Wilderness Name In most cases, the purpose for a particular spread-
- composed of wilderness name, agency, State, sheet is obvious from its content and sorting. The last
year designated and current total acreage two spreadsheets, Administrative Units of the BLM
- sorted alphabetically by wilderness name and FS, are included because these agencies have finer
Current BLM Acreages levels of administration for their wildernesses, unlike
- composed of wilderness name, State, adminis- the FWS and NPS which have only a single level of
trative unit within the BLM, and current administration. Acreages are not available at this
acreage within each administrative unit finer level of administration, and while accurate as of
- sorted alphabetically by State and then alpha- the date of publication, the administrative offices
betically by wilderness name responsible for a particular wilderness and the names
Current FS Acreages of these offices can change rapidly.
- composed ofwilderness name, State, adminis- Several abbreviations are used within the spread-
trative unit within the FS, and current acre- sheets to save space, including the above agency ab-
age within each administrative unit breviations and the following: FO (Field Office), NF
- sorted by State, then alphabetically by wilder- (National Forest), NWR (National Wildlife Refuge),
ness name, and by administrative unit NP (National Park), NP& P (National Park and Pre-
Current FWS Acreages serve),N M (National Monument), NSS (National Sea-
- composed of wilderness name, State, adminis- shore), RD (Ranger District), RA (Resource Area), and
trative unit within the FWS, and current acre- NR (National Recreation Area).
age within each administrative unit
- sorted by State, then alphabetically by wilder- Sources of Information
ness name, and by administrative unit
Current NPS Acreages An important aspect of ensuring that this NWPS
- composed of wilderness name, State, adminis- Database is the most accurate and current source for
trative unit within the NPS, and current acre- wilderness information was determining which sources
age within each administrative unit to rely on for different types of wilderness data. This
- sorted by State, then alphabetically by wilder- database refers to both legal and administrative docu-
ness name, and by administrative unit ments for accurate and legally binding information.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-Revised Edition. 2000
Sources include government documents, agency pub- Current wilderness acreages within this database
lications, and communications with agency personnel. do not include private and State inholdings. Data on
All of the documents used in this NWPS Database are the exact size of wilderness inholdings within indi-
listed in the References and Appendices, including all vidual wildernesses is not uniformly available from
of the Public Laws and other government documents the managing agencies. However, the omission of
used to support these data. Due to space restrictions, inholding acres accounts for some of the large discrep-
specific sources used for every entry in this Database ancies between public law acreage and current acre-
are not included here. The authors may be contacted age. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
for any of this information. (BWCA) is a good example. Initially designated wil-
In addition, wilderness information is in a constant derness in 1964, in 1978 Public Law 95-495 amended
state of flux. Every year, Congress may establish new the size of the BWCA, listing the total acreage for the
wildernesses and issue legislation redrawing wilder- area as 1,075,500.T he current Forest Service acreage
ness boundaries and adding or subtracting acreage. for the BWCA is 809,974, as is listed in this database.
Ongoing mapping efforts also produce new and more This substantial difference can at least in part be
accurate data on wilderness size. Accordingly, this attributed to inholdings, according to Forest Service
database can only provide a snapshot of the NWPS as personnel. However, the Forest Service does not have
it stood in 1999. specific data on inholding acreages for this and many
The Federal laws which established units of the other wildernesses.
NWPS, beginning with the Wilderness Act of 1964 and While the original public law acreage is important
including all subsequent wilderness legislation, are from a historical perspective, the administrative acre-
the legally correct source for the wilderness names, age is considered the most accurate and up to date. The
locations, original acreage, and dates of designation. primary sources for current acreages are the latest
In some cases, discrepancies exist between the name agency reports. After the information from these
commonly used for a wilderness, and the name listed sources was compiled, the database was distributed to
in the enabling legislation. Unless an official decision regional and national wilderness specialists in each of
was made to change the public law name, either the agencies (see appendix B). The feedback they
administratively or legislatively, the name listed in provided alerted us to anomalies of specific areas and
the public law is legally binding and is used here. The recent acreage changes. Where a wilderness crosses
accuracy of the public law numbers listed for each State boundaries (table I),o r where multiple agencies
agency were checked against Title 16 of the U.S. Code have jurisdiction for a single wilderness (table 2),
(19981, which lists all units of the NWPS, the laws there is greater potential for discrepancies in the total
affecting them, and dates of enactment. Administra- acreage. Twenty-one wildernesses are administered
tive information in this Database, including adminis- by more than one agency; 19 of these are administered
tering agency, administrative units, and current acre-
age for every wilderness, was derived from data
supplied by the four land management agencies.
This NWPS Database distinguishes between public Table 1-Wildernesses in multiple states.
law acreage, which is the acreage listed in the enabling
Wilderness States
legislation, and the current acreage, which is supplied
by the administering agencies. The public law acreage Absaroka-Beartooth
for a given wilderness is merely an approximation. Beaver Dam Mountains
When a wilderness is officially designated, the legisla- Big Frog
Black Fork Mountain
tive language generally reads like the following ex-
Cohutta
cerpt from Public Law 96-550 (Section 102(a)(l)):
Coyote Mountains
certain lands in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, which Death Valley
con~prisea pproxinzately two hundred and eleven thousand
Ellicott Rock
three hundred acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled
Havasu
"Aldo Leopold Wilderness-Proposed" dated August 1980,
and which shall be known as the Aldo Leopold Wilderness. Hells Canyon
[emphasis added] Imperial Refuge
Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock
Once an area becomes part of the NWPS, the manag-
Mountain Lake
ing agencies usually survey or map it and update the
Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs
legislated acreage with more accurate information. In
Platte River
the above example, the Forest Service lists the acreage
Red Buttes
for the Aldo Leopold wilderness as 202,016 acres, a
Selway-Bitterroot
difference of over 9,000 acres from the public law Southern Nantahala
acreage. Wenaha-Tucannon
USDA Forest Service Gen Tech Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-Revised Edition. 2000 3
Table 2-Wildernesses in multiple agencies. The agency Report on these areas (U.S. Congress House of Repre-
administering the largest acreage is listed first. sentatives 1965). The "Report of the Secretary of
Agriculture on the Status of National Forest Units of
Wilderness Agencies
the National Wilderness Preservation System" in-
Bighorn Mountain BLM / FS cluded a list of wilderness acreages along with a status
Domeland FS / BLM report on the agency's progress in developing regula-
Frank Church-River of No Return FS / BLM
tions for the new system of wilderness. Appendix B of
Hells Canyon FS / BLM
the report lists the name, location, description, and
Indian Peaks FS / NPS
size of each wilderness unit.
lnyo Mountains BLM / FS
Wilderness names have changed throughout the
lshi FS / BLM
Kanab Creek FS / BLM history of the system both through legislative and
Kiavah FS / BLM administrative action. Legislative action is necessary
Lee Metcalf FS / BLM to legally change a wilderness or administrative unit
Machesna Mountain FS / BLM name. Wilderness names that have changed through
Mount Massive FS / FWS Congressional mandate are shown in table 3. In addi-
Mt. Moriah FS / BLM tion, there are instances where the administrative
Powderhorn BLM / FS usage of an alternative name is so widespread that the
San Gorgonio FS / BLM
administrative name is used in this Database. In the
Santa Lucia FS / BLM
case of the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness, the name
Santa Rosa BLM / FS
change was officially made by the managing agency
Trinity Alps FS / BLM
and the U.S. Board of Geographic Names (1978),w hile
Uncompahgre FS / BLM
Wild Rogue FS / BLM the rest are the result of standard usage. The Board of
Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel FS / BLM Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal entity created
in 1890 to establish and maintain uniform geographic
name usage within the government. It is composed of
representatives of Federal agencies and acts as a
by the Forest Service and the BLM, while one is central authority to which all name questions and
administered by the FS and the FWS, and another is problems are directed.
administered by the FS and NPS. Nineteen wilder- The name of the Forest Service's Anaconda Pintler
nesses cross State boundaries; of these, 18o ccur in two Wilderness in Montana was the subject of contention
States, and one wilderness occurs in three States. for many years because different spellings of both the
wilderness name and other features with the same
Exceptions and Special Cases name were used legislatively, administratively, and
publicly. The wilderness was officially designated as
While the previous section sets forth the guidelines the "Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness" by the Wilderness
used for choosing accurate data, there are exceptions Act of 1964. However, many maps and signs used the
to these general rules. Many of these exceptions con- spelling "Pintlar" for the peak, pass, meadows, and
cern the FS, partly because the FS has the greatest other features of the same name. The family for which
number of wilderness units and therefore more oppor- these features were named uses the spelling "Pintler"
tunities for changes affecting the wilderness and its and had been trying unsuccessfully for years to have
administration. the name officially changed. In 1978, the Forest Ser-
Although enabling legislation is the legally binding vice agreed to change the spellings from Pintlar to
source for most wilderness information, there are Pintler and at the same time removed the hyphen from
some cases where other sources were used. The most the wilderness name. This was an officially docu-
notable case is the acreage of the original 54 wilder- mented decision approved by the BGN (Decision List
ness units designated by the Wilderness Act of 1964. 7803), and the spelling Anaconda Pintler is used in
The Act, which was signed by President Lyndon this Database.
Johnson on September 3,1964, immediately made all Several National Forests have been administra-
Forest Service "wilderness," "wild," and "canoe" areas tively combined, resulting in name changes that are
wilderness units of the NWPS. However, the legisla- universally accepted, although not Congressionally
tion did not include either a list of these units or their mandated. This database uses the combined names so
acreage. Therefore the source for these public law that the information is more easily transferred to on-
acreages was not the act itself. It was not until Febru- the-ground situations. This occurs in the following
ary 8,1965, that the President submitted a "Message National Forests: Apache-Sitgreaves in Arizona,
to the House Committee on Interior and Insular Af- Beaverhead-Deerlodge in Montana, Bridger-Teton in
fairs" accompanying the Department of Agriculture's Wyoming, Humbolt-Toiyabe in California and Nevada,
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-Revised Edition. 2000
Table 3-Wilderness name changes. The current name is in bold letters.
Wilderness name Agency State Public law Year Explanation
Minarets FS
Ansel Adams FS Name change and acreage addition.
Anaconda-Pintler 88-577
Anaconda Pintler Decision # 7803 BGN and Forest Service change name spelling.
River of No Return BLM / FS
Frank Church-River of No Return BLM / FS Name change.
Shelp Lake
Kimball Creek
Headwaters All three units administratively combined into
Headwaters.
Point Reyes NPS
Phillip Burton NPS Name change.
Admiralty Island
Kootznoowoo Name change.
Joshua Tree NPS
Joshua Tree NPS Administrative unit renamed Joshua Tree National Park.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge FWS
Mollie Beattie FWS Name change.
Columbia
Mark 0.H atfield Name change.
Bisti BLM
De-na-zin BLM
Bisti l De-na-zin BLM Wildernesses combined and additional acreage added
Everglades NPS
Marjory Stoneman Douglas NPS Name change.
Medicine Bow-Routt in Colorado and Wyoming, Mt. Another interesting situation involves two wilder-
Baker-Snoqualmie in Washington, Salmon-Challis in nesses on the Francis Marion National Forest in South
Idaho, Shasta-Trinity in California, San Juan-Rio Carolina. In 1980, Public Law 96-560 named two
Grande in Colorado, Wallowa-Whitman in Oregon, different wilderness study areas "Wambaw Swamp
and Wasatch-Cache in Utah. Although used here, Wilderness." Section 201(e) of the public law states
these changes are not incorporated into Land Areas of that the lands "which comprise approximately 5,100
the Natiorzal Forest System, the official Forest Service acres.. .depicted on a map entitled 'Wambaw Swamp
land data publication. Forest Service administration Wilderness-Proposed', dated May 1980... shall be known
of wildernesses at the Ranger District level is also as the Wambaw Swamp Wilderness." Subsequently,
reported in this Database, but as with the National Section 201(g) designates another 5,100 acres known
Forests, District-level administration changes over previously as "Little Wambaw Swamp Wilderness-
time. Proposed" as the Wambaw Swamp Wilderness as well.
A change that is accepted by the Forest Service Land While just the Wambaw Swamp is listed in the U.S.
Areas publication but is not legislatively supported Code list of wildernesses, the FS Land Areas of the
involves the Headwaters Wilderness in Wisconsin. National Forest System book includes both a Wambaw
Three wildernesses, Headwaters, Shelp Lake, and Swamp and a Little Wambaw Swamp. The Wilderness
Kzmball Creek, were designated by Public Law 98-321 Specialist from Forest Service Region 8 asserts that
in 1984. The three areas were designated separately the mistake is in the public law, and that there are in
because they are separated by a road that did not fit fact two different wildernesses. This argument is bol-
the characteristics of a potential wilderness. They stered by the fact that the two areas are not even
have always been managed as one unit, however, and contiguous. The agency's interpretation has been ac-
are now referred to collectively as the Headwaters cepted and this database includes both wildernesses.
Wilderness.
USDA Forest Service Gen Tech Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-RevisedE dition. 2000
Number of Wildernesses in the Birch Islands
Mooshorn Wilderness. ME
National Wilderness Preservation Edmunds Unit -/
System
Chupadera
At the time of publication, there are 628 wilder-
nesses in the NWPS. This number differs from figures Indian Well Unit Bos~ued el Apache. NM
quoted in other wilderness databases due in part to the
Little San Pas~ual
changes explained above, recent legislative changes,
and the inclusion of inaccurate information in previ-
ous lists. Since the publication of the.first edition of the North Mountain Unit 1
/Wichita Mountains. OK
NWPS Database in 1998 (RMRS-GTR-18) three new Charons Garden Unit
wilderness laws have been passed and four new areas
have been created. One recent addition is the Opal Figure I-Fish and Wildlife Service adminis-
Creek Wilderness administered by the FS in Oregon. trative units (left side) that are commonly con-
Although this wilderness was conditionally estab- sidered wildernesses, and the legally correct
name for these wildernesses (right side).
lished by the Oregon Resources Conservation Act of
1996, these conditions were not met until November of
1998 when the area officially joined the system. The
three new wilderness laws were passed during the last
double-counted when deriving the total number of
3 months of 1999. These laws established two new
wilderness units administered by the agencies, yield-
BLM wildernesses; the Gunnison Gorge Wilderness in
ing the larger number.
Colorado and the Otay Mountain Wilderness in Cali-
fornia; and one FS wilderness, the Dugger Mountain
Wilderness in Alabama. Trends in Wilderness: I964 through
A wilderness that is missing from many NWPS 1999
descriptions is the Park Service's Chiricahua National
Monument Wilderness in Arizona. The Forest Service The information provided by this Database can be
manages the Chiricahua Wilderness on the Coronado used for many purposes. Along with providing specific
National Forest in Arizona. This, however, is a sepa- data about a particular wilderness, State, or agency,
rate wilderness, according to the U.S. Code, and was the information in this NWPS Database allows the
designated by a different public law. Some databases user to analyze trends across the system and over
erroneously list only one Chiricahua wilderness man- time. The following analysis of general trends pro-
aged by the two agencies. vides an overview of the NWPS and its 35 year devel-
Sometimes an agency will refer to different portions opment from 1964 to 1999.
of the same wilderness as different wilderness units.
Previous compilations of wilderness information have Total Number and Acres
in some cases erroneously included these administra-
tive units as separate wildernesses. This was the case The number of wildernesses established (fig. 2) and
with three Fish and Wildlife Service wildernesses: acres designated (fig. 3) by each Congress shows con-
Bosque del Apache Wilderness in New Mexico, Wichita siderable yearly variation. There were only nine indi-
Mountains Wilderness in Oklahoma, and Moosehorn vidual years since passage of the Wilderness Act when
Wilderness in Maine (fig. 1). The "Moosehorn Wilder- no wildernesses were designated, and 1965 to 1967
ness (Baring Unit)" also in Maine, however, is a sepa- was the only period of three consecutive years in which
rate wilderness and is listed as such in the U.S. Code. no wilderness legislation was passed by Congress. In
Only Congressionally designated wildernesses are 1984, 175 wildernesses were established, more than
included in this database. Where a wilderness is double any other year's addition. Despite the record
administered by more than one agency, the separately number of new wildernesses in 1984, the largest num-
managed areas are referred to in this text as wilder- ber of wilderness acres was designated in 1980 with
ness units. When reporting or discussing the number passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Con-
of wildernesses in the nation, it is important to distin- servation Act, which added over 56 million acres to the
guish the total number of wildernesses in the NWPS NWPS. Combined with other wilderness laws passed
from the total number of wilderness units. The total that year, nearly 61 million acres of wilderness were
number of wilderness units administered by all four designated in 1980, more than six times the number of
agencies is 649 rather than 628, because 21 wilder- acres passed in any other year. These two large addi-
nesses are jointly administered by more than one tions in 1980 and in 1984, of acres and areas respec-
agency (see table 2). Each of these 21 wildernesses are tively, clearly show in the cumulative yearly total of
6 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-Revised Edition. 2000